I plan to share MUCH more about this sweet baby of ours, but for now, I just have time to share our “birth story.” I was scheduled to be induced on Saturday night, November 30th at Saint Francis Hospital in Tulsa.
We checked into the hospital at 7:30 p.m. By 8:45 I was in bed, hooked up to monitors and an IV, and the nurse had administered Cytotec to ripen my cervix and hopefully get things going. I had contractions all evening, but nothing painful. At 3:30 the nurse said that Dr. Nilson wanted to start me on Pitocin. Soon after we started that my amniotic fluid started leaking a little bit. Still, things progressed slowly. I had expected them to since prior to checking in I was still dilated to only 1 cm and wasn’t effaced much.
The nurse checked me again at 5:00 in the morning and said that I was dilated to 4 cm but was still “thick” (meaning not effaced) and the baby was still very high - she had not yet begun to descend into my pelvis. However, the contractions were getting stronger and I asked for my epidural. Dr. Woolard came and gave me my epidural at 5:30. He was very pleasant and did a great job.
At 7:30 a.m. I was still only 4 cm dilated, not really effaced, and the baby was high. At 9:30 I was still only 4 cm dilated, but I was 80% effaced. Dr. Nilson came in and broke my water. The nurse checked me an hour later at 10:30 and told me I was 6 cm dilated but the baby was not engaging. She was face up instead of on her side like she should have been, so we tried various positions to get her to move to her side and move down into my pelvis.
By 12:10 I was 6, “almost 7” cm dilated, almost completely effaced, and the baby had turned and come down some. We were still trying to get her to move a bit more though. At 1:00 I was between 9 and 10 cm dilated, completely effaced, and the baby was almost all the way down (she was at -3 station) but she had only turned part way.
At 2:00 I started pushing. I was fully dilated but the baby was still at an angle so I pushed to try to get her to move. My epidural worked perfectly. I was not excited about having one, but knew from past experience that trying to endure hours of Pitocin without one is just too painful. I was so pleased that although the epidural worked, it didn’t numb me completely. I was able to feel the pressure and know when I needed to push. I was so pleased, especially because I ended up pushing for an hour and twenty minutes! Rather than the back center of her head entering my canal, the head had come down at an angle. She was very hard to get out! Eventually the doctor decided to use a vacuum to assist in the delivery and get her out safely. Overall, after starting the Pitocin, my labor was 12 hours.
Ariani Celeste was born on December 1st at 3:21 p.m. She weighed 8 pounds and 7 ounces and was 19 ½ inches long. She was like Mary Poppins - “practically perfect in every way.” We were home just over 24 hours after she was born and are blissfully happy adjusting to our new life as a family of four. I am so thankful that God gave us this beautiful miracle baby!
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